This is an archive of items that have been displayed on [[Wikitravel:Discover]]. The archive is maintained by [[User:DiscoverBot]], which will insert old items right after the tag &lt;!--START-->. Alas, the bot is not smart enough to create new months, so please help it out.

This is an archive of items that have been displayed on [[Wikitravel:Discover]]. The archive is maintained by [[User:DiscoverBot]], which will insert old items right after the tag &lt;!--START-->. Alas, the bot is not smart enough to create new months, so please help it out.

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<!--DATE-->''Last updated on 01 Nov 2008 01:00:41 ''

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<!--DATE-->''Last updated on 02 Nov 2008 01:00:39 ''

==October 2008==

==October 2008==

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* [[Ko Kret]] Island in [[Thailand]] is '''less than 300 years old'''.

* [[Ko Kret]] Island in [[Thailand]] is '''less than 300 years old'''.

Revision as of 05:05, 2 November 2008

This is an archive of items that have been displayed on Wikitravel:Discover. The archive is maintained by User:DiscoverBot, which will insert old items right after the tag <!--START-->. Alas, the bot is not smart enough to create new months, so please help it out.

If preserved people are your thing, visit the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano; it's not only the resting place of the Iceman Ötzi, but also (through October) the host for visiting Chachapoya mummies from Peru.

The Mauritiusdodo bird is long extinct, of course, but if you visit the islands, you might still see the rare pink pigeon, the green gecko phelsuma and the Aldabra giant tortoise.

Hankering for a new spin on the hot dog? Try one in Nokia (yes, that Nokia), where they like to replace the plain bun with a sugary donut.

August 2008

Hankering for a new spin on the hot dog? Try one in Nokia (yes, that Nokia), where they like to replace the plain bun with a sugary donut.

The remote, jungle-covered Japanese island of Iriomote receives 100 visitors per resident every year.

Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu both grew up and live on the same street in Soweto, Johannesburg.

Chakhar is an 8th century castle located in the Bhutanese town of Jakar. Although now a small stone building, the original structure was said to have been nine stories high and made completely of iron.

The Bushwacker Festival, an annual event in Pensacola, Florida, honors a mixed drink.

Zeno, Lazarus, and Umm Haram are all celebrated in sites and statuary around the city of Larnaca, Cyprus.

The arches around the town square in Jackson (Wyoming) are made of hundreds of elk antlers.

Travelling by KFC is common in Indonesia — it's the local abbreviation for "fast ferry boat".

The mythology behind the creation of the Indian state of Kerala prominently features decapitation.

Among the hotels and other accommodations in and near Las Vegas, New Mexico is the Star Hill Inn, an "astronomy resort" featuring a 29-inch telescope.

The quiet little town of Kamakura was the capital of Japan during the Kamakura shogunate, from 1185 to 1333.

Dodo birds are long extinct, but you can still see the bones of one at the Naturalis museum in Leiden.

Aberdyfi, Wales is home to Del-Boy, officially named (by The Donkey Conservancy) as Britain's best beach donkey for 2008.

The hiking at El Malpais National Monument is good, but stay within monument boundaries; terrain nearby was a bombing range during World War II, and unexploded bombs may still be present outside the monument.

One of the strangest events of the summer in Nagoya, Japan is the World Cosplay Summit, where admirers of Japanese animation dress up as their favorite animated characters and parade through the streets.

If you fly into Peoria (Illinois), you'll travel from airport to city on a road named for comedian Richard Pryor, a native of Peoria.

One of the must-sees of Nkhata Bay, Malawi is the feeding of the fish eagle that lives high up on the cliff face south of Njaya Lodge.

Up for a culinary feast in Porvoo, Finland? Try snails, deer carpaccio and tar-flavored salmon, then finish your meal with a Kiss.

Venetian raiders stole the body of St. Mark the Evangelist from Alexandria in 820, but they left behind his head.

The Leaning Tower of Puerto Morelos? The old lighthouse there was knocked askew in a 1967 hurricane, but has remained standing through several subsequent storms.

If you go to a restaurant in Quebec City during Carnaval season and order Caribou, you may not get what you expect; in local jargon, it's an alcoholic beverage.

Under Zimbabwean law, it is illegal to "hoard" more than Z$100 billion — or about one US dollar.

Many of the hoteliers in Göreme, Turkey can offer you the option of sleeping in a cave.

The Greek town of Hydra isn't named for the mythical monster, but rather for a long-defunct spring.

With a population of less than 60,000, Dubuque, Iowa isn't a big city, but it's home to no fewer than six colleges with affiliations to churches.

Moussorgsky notwithstanding, there's no Great Gate in Kiev, but you can visit a Chernobyl museum there.

Got a hankering for iguana skin boots? You can get them at Sanchez Brothers Western Clothes, on Chicago's Southwest Side.

If you visit Mongolia and have an adventurous palate, try a boodog, or marmot barbecue. (May cause bubonic plague.)

The entrance to the (American) Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton (Ohio) is (unsurprisingly) surmounted by half of a giant football, but the effect is to make the building look like a giant orange squeezer.

June 2008

If you visit Malacca during Intrudu in February, be ready to have buckets of water thrown at you. (It's all in fun.)

In Iriomote, Japan in the summertime? Stay at the pineapple-shaped Pineapple House and tuck into all-you-can-eat pineapple.

What's that doing there? One of the features of the Frauenkirche in Munich's City Center district is the Teufelstritt, or devil's footstep.

The Fighting 69th Monument in Ballymote, Ireland hosts a piece of metal from the World Trade Center in New York City, honoring a firefighter who perished in the 9/11 attacks and had ancestors in the town.

Travelers visiting Socorro, New Mexico in April or September might get to join a tour of the site of the world's first atomic bomb explosion, at nearby White Sands Missile Range.

The entire Grand Shrine of Ise is dismantled and rebuilt from scratch every 20 years — counting up from 690 AD, the current incarnation is the 61st.

In the mood for a luxurious train ride? Go beyond First and try Rehab Class on Saudi Railways.

The latest craze in Akihabara, Tokyo is cat cafes, where customers can drink tea while playing with felines.

When in Dingle, Ireland, be sure to visit its most famous resident, Fungi the dolphin, who has been living in the bay for 20 years and welcomes human visitors.

Does ten dinars for a taxi ride in Bahrain sound cheap? At US$2.67 to the dinar, it's not!

With the Loot of Lima worth in excess of $50 million rumoured to be buried there, Cocos Island is the perfect destination for any treasure hunter.

One of Riyadh's more macabre sights is Chop-Chop Square, where public beheadings are carried out on Fridays.

The head office of the Longaberger Baskets Company in Newark, Ohio is a building in the shape of a gigantic basket.

At the Singapore Zoo's Jungle Breakfast, you get to feed yourself and elephants as well.

The Maropeng centre in the Cradle of Humankind caters for all aspiring time travelers. In the time tunnel it only takes a few steps to walk backwards from today until 4 billion years ago.

Spice up your sandwich with one of the more than 800 varieties of mustard available at the Mustard Museum just outside Madison

For anyone that has ever dreamed about running away and joining the circus. The Aloft Loft in Chicago offers a Two-Day Beginning Trapeze course.

April 2008

At just 396 meters, the runway at Saba International Airport is probably the shortest commercial runway in the world.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, except in Buffalo National River where harming a Ivory-billed woodpecker will get you arrested, but a photo of one will earn you $10 000.

Some cultures require a handsome, sword-bearing prince to rescue the damsel in distress; in Kawasaki they make do with a blacksmith and hammer. Visit the Iron Penis Festival to find out why.

The huge limestone spires of the Pinnacles Desert in Western Australia is best viewed early in the morning or around sunset when then low angle of the sun enhances the colours and contrasts of the rock formations.

Fast food does not always have to be a burger and fries. In Barbados the fast food can do 30mph through the air.

Miyake, a bar in Palo Alto, California popular with students at nearby Stanford University, is known for its Sake Bomb (shot of sake dropped into a glass of beer and chugged).

For a dip with a difference, visit Yamanouchi in Japan, where you can go hot spring bathing with snow monkeys.

The Spring of Life fresco in the Lutheran church at Rovaniemi, Finland, follows Biblical themes, but with some twists; for example, it depicts reindeer standing in for lambs.

Ürümqi, in China, claims to be the most inland city in the world because of its distance from the (any) ocean.

The Allen-Bradley Clock Tower in Milwaukee is the world's largest four-sided clock, with clock faces nearly twice the size of London's famous "Big Ben."

Guadalajara's characteristic salsa is called Tapatío, but choose your words carefully when buying it; "Tapatio" also means a resident of the city.

Bedwellty House and Park in Tredegar, a small town in Wales, lays claim to hosting the world's largest lump of coal.

Feeling hung over in South Korea? Try the traditional remedy haejangguk, a soup made from pork spine and ox blood.

Despite being the site of a mass Japanese POW breakout in 1944, the Australian town of Cowra is now the site of Australia's only Japanese war cemetery.

The famed Sphinx of Giza is no lovable kitty-cat: the Arabs call it the Father of Terror, while the Greek name means the Strangler.

Cardiff, Wales is home to a Roman-era castle and the Doctor Who Exhibition, complete with studio tours.

The main road to tiny and remote Regent, North Dakota, USA is called the Enchanted Highway, as it's adorned with giant sculptures of a grasshopper, a covey of pheasants, and Teddy Roosevelt, among others.

March 2008

You can't reach Parismina, Costa Rica by road or train, and car and bike rental doesn't exist there, but take heart: once you're in town, you can get around by rented ox cart.

The Hall of Skulls at Monsopiad Cultural Village outside Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia features 42 skulls of enemies, all killed by the warrior-hero Monsopiad.

Among the objects on display at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas, memorializing the city's favorite son, is a giant-size replica of the rocker's trademark glasses.

February 2008

Fans of spicy fermented cabbage from all over Korea flock to the Kimchi Museum in Seoul.

The Norwegian city of Bergen is famously rainy, but the locals say there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.

On your way from Takaoka to the Vladivostok ferry? Take a look out the window: the name of the Himi train line means Ice-Watching.

If you visit Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada and crave a dinner of alligator meat, you can get it at K's Amazon Eatery -- even though the Amazon and its gators are thousands of miles away.

A cypress tree outside Kurje Lhakhang monastery in Jakar, Bhutan is claimed to have grown from Guru Rinpoche's walking stick.

When you visit Vicksburg (Mississippi) National Military Park, you can see one of the first ironclad gunboats, dating back to US Civil War times.

Good things come in threes — and in Japan, the list includes views, castles, gardens, mountains, hot springs and giant Buddha statues.

Medieval frescoes in the Church of St. John the Baptist in Bohinj, Slovenia often show figures with large swellings of the neck (goiters), caused by lack of iodine in the local diet.

Don't look for nightlife in Saudi Arabia: alcohol, dancing, movies and mingling with the opposite sex are all prohibited.

Want to visit the Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern Capitals? Book flights to Beijing, Xian, Tokyo and Nanjing.

Chippewa Square in Savannah, Georgia was the site of the bus stop in the movie Forrest Gump, but don't look for the famous bench; it was just a prop.

When eating at Houston's restaurant in Kanab, Utah, tip the servers well; they pack pistols, although it's just for show -- allegedly.

A bullet train ride on the Hakata-Minami Line in Fukuoka, Japan costs just ¥290 (under US$3). Alas, the end-to-end trip lasts just ten minutes.

If you somehow find yourself visiting Clipperton Island and lack things to do (understandably), try running around the island and timing yourself; the record circumnavigation time is one hour and 17 minutes.

The interior of the Phnom Sombok temple in Kratie, Cambodia is decorated with torture scenes for the edification of the non-virtuous visitor.

If you visit Fort Caroline National Memorial in Jacksonville, Florida, don't expect to see the eponymous fort itself; it's now beneath the waters of the St. John's River.

The Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run, starting in Silverton (Colorado), is often called the toughest endurance race in the world, yet is so popular that would-be runners must enter a lottery to register for it.

In a bit of national one-upmanship, the Parliament building in Budapest is claimed to be one meter longer and wider than its English counterpart.

The Sink, a bar in Boulder, Colorado, USA, once employed a janitor named Robert Redford -- yes, that Robert Redford.